Thursday, March 27, 2014

Often referred to as Bolwell Mk3A.
Tony Shaw took these photos at last year's Winton Historics and they were later reproduced in the NSW Slipstream.

I think this was its coming out parade and Patrick who has owned it for decades was using Winton as a shakedown run prior to the Sandown Historics. Tony was looking forward to catching up with Patrick at Sandown. I have never heard whether he did or not or, even, if the car was there. However, it was at the later Geelong Speed Trials, driven by its FORMER owner, Iain, and flagged off by that retro-dressed young woman in the bright pink mini-dress and white stole.
Meanwhile, Colin, in Thailand, discovered a couple of pictures of it in mid-60s Graffiti Publications' "Hot Rod Heritage".

That's it in the background of a pic of John English's rear engined dragster taken at Riverside.

Here it is running off against Daryl Harvey's '34 roadster (which was considered to be the first hot rod in Australia fitted with an OHV engine in 1959).

Friday, March 21, 2014

When
the driver hits the brake it is not just the carbon brake discs and
pads that slows the car down on a 2014 car, the energy recover system
also does a significant amount too, rather like engine braking but a
much stronger effect. This means that the drivers left pedal (F1 cars
have no clutch pedal) is no longer linked directly to the rear brakes
instead it is linked to a computer which then controls the rear brakes.
The front brakes continue to operate in the same way as they always have
done.

The
main reason for this is that rules say that the car is only allowed to
recover a certain amount of energy per lap from the rear brakes (it does
not recover from the fronts), and there is only a finite amount of
energy that can be stored in the battery. When either of these limits is
reached the ERS stops recovering energy and the braking effect is lost
and the traditional brakes take over. But for the driver it is important
to retain the brake feeling otherwise when he hits the pedal he is
never quite sure what will happen. If you imagine driving down a steep
hill in a low gear using the engine braking alone to slow you down, then
suddenly that braking effect stops it makes the car almost impossible
to drive smoothly. The semi active Brake By Wire system should stop that
from happening and automatically balance the conventional brakes with
the ERS braking. But getting to work properly is a problem currently for
a number of teams including Lotus “the biggest problems are how the
chassis works with the power unit and how the energy recovery system
works. So there are some inconsistencies there which are making it very
difficult for the driver to predict what he is going to get when he
arrives at the corner” Technical Director Nick Chester admitted. “So the
system is not doing exactly the same thing every time and that is
disturbing the driver and losing us a lot of time.”

Getting
the feel right for drivers is a major headache for some teams as well
as making the systems reliable. At Melbourne Brake By Wire issues
directly lead to a few off track moments for some drivers.
“You just take the hydraulic inputs that the FIA specify and work
with an electronically controlled hydraulic link to the caliper, at the
same time you have some redundancy in there so if you have a failure it
should revert to a manual brake circuit” Toro Rosso Technical Director
James Key explains. “You have to account for any failure mode you can
think of both mechanically and in software. Its bit like a differential
or a clutch, but the tricky bit is mapping it well.”

Mapping
the systems is an area where some teams, notably those Renault runners
who lost track time at the Jerez and Bahrain 1 tests, will be struggling
in terms of time. “Brake by wire is a massive for us in 2014, you have
control system mapping, driver mapping to get him comfortable, you have
state of charge control, making sure the battery topped up at the right
time and temperature and vibration and that is just one system” Williams
Chief Test Engineer Rod Nelson explains. “The driver needs to have a
good feeling of retardation versus pressure that is not steppy or moves
around, it has to stay the same. He can adjust the bias forwards or
rearwards as in the past but we are also balancing how much energy he
uses from the rears with how much we are trying to recover. Its key to
the mapping and the brake setup that when you come off the brakes there
is no residual force that may give a little bit of instability or a lock
up. Some drivers are very very sensitive to this.

We
can model the brakes on the simulator and that is what we have done,
but they are not straightforward as there is a thermal effect, the
amount of stopping power the brakes have depends on the temperature of
the brake so that's an input we need to understand. We set a recovery
target for each lap, so whatever a driver does not put in the MGU does.
We have had issues with losing brake by wire and the driver ends up on
his own. The pedal has a very different feel when that happens it is
much softer than you expect it to be. More significantly the brake bias
shifts substantially, so if you come into a corner with a Brake By Wire
failure then you are going to get a wake up call, it gets them
thinking.”

It
also create a challenge for the caliper manufacturers like Alcon, AP,
Brembo and Akebono who have to develop control systems to aid the
braking effort at the rear, negating the need for the driver to
constantly alter the brake bias, and also contributing in preventing
rear lock-up.

The
arrival of Brake By Wire in F1 means that now the only things the
driver now controls mechanically are the steering angle of the front
wheels and the pressure applied to the front brakes. Every other system
on the car is now drive by wire.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Remember Peter? He was one of that select band in Adelaide that successfully built a very nice Mark 7 in 1966. It was metallic blue and performed as well as it looked. Decades later, I discovered that he still operated the family mattress making business, "Sleephaven", when my youngest son went to work there in his first job after leaving highschool. Well, these days he is "Mr Christmas Parade" in Mt. Gambier, designing and constructing floats for their annual Christmas parade. Here's an article from the ABC from last year.

Mt Gambier's 'Mr Christmas Parade' gives a sneak peek of new addition

"They say the best ideas come to you in the middle of
the night," said Peter Mounsey, who holds the title of Parade
Development Advisor with Mt Gambier City Council.

A recent 4am brainstorm helped him puzzle out how to build the treads
on his latest creation, a friendly character from popular children's
television show, Mr Squiggle.
So Bill the Steam Shovel, famous for his corny jokes and ability to
belch steam from his nostrils, now has milk bottles for treads.
"I spent a long time trying to figure out what to make them with," said Mr Mounsey.
"People say 'hang on, they're milk containers'.
Mr Mounsey got in contact with the family of the late Mr Squiggle
creator Norman Hetherington to get the nod for the project and
incorporated some interesting feats of engineering.
A tiny windscreen wiper motor powers Bill's head up and down and two
small steam generators will blow 'smoke' from his nostrils in front of
the crowds.
"I think the kids will love that," Mr Mounsey said.
The brand new addition will join 43 other floats this Saturday
parading down Commercial St for the Mount Gambier Christmas Parade, with
schools and community organisations all vying for the crowd's
attention.
The weather forecast is clearing clouds with a top of 18 degrees, with just a slim chance of rain.
Mr Mounsey said he was possibly being a little self-indulgent with
Bill featuring as his latest float creation, as he built it not only for
the kids, but the adults too.
"People my age will remember it well."
"There's about 20,000 people who come to the parade each year and
only half are kids, so you have to build interest for the rest of them
too."
The man responsible for parade favourites like the Pirate Ship,
Nutcracker and Hansel and Gretel said he works hard to catch parade
goers attention each year and reckons he doesn't have long to do it.
"Seven seconds - that's how long each person spends looking at a float," he said.
"We try to improve the look of the parade every year, with at least one new float so every parade is completely different."
Team Leader of Community Events and lady behind the scenes Denise
Richardson, said there were 44 floats entered in this year's parade and
the popular event was beating out unlikely rivals.
"We just beat out the Tuna-Rama festival in Port Lincoln for the
longest continuous running festival in the state for 55 years, they're
one year behind us," she said proudly.
This will be the first year in many that the parade is not being
fully televised by WIN, however Mrs Richardson said they will still be
filming it to show in coming weeks.
Eleven brass bands will also be strutting their stuff, competing in
the 2013 Mount Gambier Brass Band Festival , which begins after the
parade at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre.
But Mrs Richardson said it's not time to go home afterwards, with the
free community event Party in the Park following the parade.
When show time draws near on Saturday, Mr Mounsey says he'll be found
up in the mayor's section in front of the Town Hall, watching it all
calmly go by, his work done for the year.
Some years, he's driven his float and while he says he much prefers
being in the audience, being inside a float does have its benefits.
"When you drive a float, you see nothing," he said.
"But on a float like the Nutcracker, you can see all of them as you go past, smiling and waving.
"It's very rewarding."

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Supashock succeeding at the V8 level and looking to break into Formula One

Posted on 2/28/2014

(as featured on Adelaidenow.com.au) The Ford Performance Racing V8
Supercar Team will be staying on an even keel this weekend with help
from Supashock technology developed in Magill.

Tim Possingham, Oscar Fiorinotto and Ford Performance Racing CEO Tim
Edwards - Source: News Corp AustraliaThe company, founded in 2006, was
set up to develop high performance suspension which could perform at the
highest levels.

Supashock is this weekend being used by FPR
and has also been supplied to Erebus and Lucas Dumbrell Racing as well
as the entire V8 Racing Ute field.

Ford is also using Supashock
in its European GT racing team and the company is working with a
Formula One team which is testing its products.

Commercial director Tim Possingham said this could lead to new opportunities for the company.

“Through this program, doors have been opened into OEM (original
equipment manufacturer) supply and Supashock is looking at an exciting
12 months ahead that include increased staff uptake and investment in
more machinery,” Mr Possingham said.

Managing director Oscar
Fiorinotto developed the technology in a partnership originally funded
by Adelaide businessman and motorsport enthusiast Kevin Weeks.

Mr Possingham said Supashock was exactly the sort of advanced manufacturing which the state should be focusing on.

“Australia is well respected as a source for innovative technology and quality product in the global marketplace.

I have spent 10 years connecting good Australian manufacturers with the
rest of the world and we have always had great success based on a
product’s technical advantages.

Smart companies playing in this
space are more insulated from the types of scenario’s we have seen make
Holden manufacturing unviable.”